Parents torn after daughter set dogs on fire

Katherine Brotherton's parents, May and TJ Brotherton, say they're angry and heartbroken over what their daughter did to their dogs. And they say they know their daughter has mental problems.

"We've tried to get her to take her medications and she refuses," said May Brotherton. May and her husband say they loved their dogs and called 9-1-1 right after they found Katherine had tried to kill them Tuesday March 9th.

"The dispatcher said who do you care more for your dogs or your daughter and I said, I'm standing there thinking she's killing my dogs, she's fine but my dogs need help," said May Brotherton.


"I just felt terrible because they don't deserve this," said TJ Brotherton.

"They took her that day to Community North but she refused treatment and told 'em she didn't need it," said May Brotherton.

It's unclear what kind of psychiatric evaluation was done on Katherine. She was released from the hospital and remains in the Johnson County Jail.

"I went out there and heard one of the dogs whimpering. The barrel was over them and I put them out on the ground," said May Brotherton. "I really didn't think Jake was alive. He was laying there. It was so upsetting. When you're an animal lover, they are like your babies and she hurt our babies."

May Brotherton says her daughter has exhibited schizophrenic behavior in the past month but she didn't know what to do. In her bedroom, Katharine had pulled out all cords to her internet and tv and put up blankets to cover windows worried, her parents said, that someone had a camera peering in on her. She also cut the cords to outside lights and the telephone, they say, because she thought someone was listening in. She used a mining ax to cut the wires about two weeks ago on the phone.

"I love her dearly" said May Brotherton. "But. if she did that to those dogs, what would she do to us." "I hope she gets help, some kind of help, so she won't do this again," said TJ Brotherton, Katharine's father.

Katharine Brotherton remains in the Johnson county jail facing two felony counts for animal cruelty for intentionally torturing an animal. Stricter cruelty laws mean she could face up to six years in jail on the two counts.